1. Field of the Inventional
The present invention relates to a communications control system involving, for instance, game devices which communicate by means of a communications circuit, and more particularly, to technology for determining environmental conditions between communications control devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
When conducting a game or simulation in a computer device or video game device, the device is generally used independently. However, systems have been proposed for implementing games or simulations between remotely located devices by connecting computer devices or game devices which are in mutually separate locations by means of a communications circuit, such as a telephone network.
In a system of this kind, operating data, or the like, from each device is transmitted and received reciprocally via the communications circuit, and this data is used to affect the processing of each device. Thereby, the users operating the devices can control the devices exactly as though processing is conducted in a single device to which two operating means are directly connected.
When conducting the same simulation or game in the remotely located computer devices or game devices, in some cases, the environmental conditions must be the same in both devices. Here, the "environmental conditions" refers to conditions which may cause compatibility errors, or unfairness between the devices, if they not put to the same settings. In a driving game, for instance, this may include the type of course or the weather during racing.
In this case, if only one of the game devices connected by the communications circuit has the right to determine the environmental conditions, and the other device cannot participate in determining the conditions, then the person playing on the device which cannot participate will lose interest. On the other hand, if both devices are capable of determining the conditions, then where there is a conflict of opinions between the players operating the two devices, for an indeterminate period of time it will be impossible to determine the environmental conditions. If this decision process takes a long time, then the circuit charges will rise.